US Election 2020: Kamala Harris on Democrats’ mask mandate

Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris clarified that the Democrats’ plan for a nationwide mask mandate wouldn’t force people into masks. 

‘It’s a standard,’ she explained in a ‘Today’ show interview with Craig Melvin that aired Friday. ‘I mean, nobody is going to be punished. Come on.’ 

At their first public outing together as running mates, Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced he’d implement a three-month nationwide mask mandate to get the spread of COVID-19 under control if he was currently president. 

There were questions then – including from President Donald Trump – if such a move would be enforceable. 

At the time, Biden referenced that it was something he would push governors to do. 

Harris seemed realistic about how unpopular that move could be when she spoke to Melvin in Washington Thursday, directly after she gave her first solo remarks since last week’s vice presidential acceptance speech. 

‘Nobody likes to wear a mask. This is a universal feeling, right? So that’s not the point – “hey, let’s enjoy wearing masks,”‘ she said. ‘No, the point of this is that we are responsible people who love our neighbor, we have to just do that right now.’ 

‘God willing, it won’t be forever,’ she said. 

Harris also told Melvin she hoped to hit the campaign trail soon, but she and Biden wanted to do so in a responsible fashion.

‘You know, Joe, that’s one of the things that he and I have in common. We love to interact with people,’ she commented.  

Harris said she and Biden would campaign ‘in every way that we can in a way that will be safe for the people we are meeting with, right?’ 

‘It would be irresponsible of us to try and pack people into a situation where they cannot safely social distance,’ she said. 

‘And that’s one of the problems, frankly, with the way Donald Trump conducts himself,’ she continued. ‘Because it really, it appears to be more about the people around him and himself, doing what is necessary to feed his ego, as sopposed to what is necesssary to feed the needs of the American people.’ 

Melvin and Harris’ sit-down happened in the hours before Trump gave his Republican National Convention speech from the White House’s South Lawn, which featured an audience of some 1,500 people who were not practicing social distancing nor with many wearing masks. 

Biden made similar comments on a fundraising call prior to Trump’s speech Thursday evening. 

He said the Democratic ticket was looking to campaign in-person in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Arizona after Labor Day, which is next weekend. 

Wisconsin and Pennsylvania had flipped to red to help Trump win against Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

Minnesota remained blue, but Trump wants to compete there, especially after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and some of the chaos that followed. 

Arizona went red in 2016, but Democrats believe it might be flippable, especially with a Senate race featuring astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the Tucson massacre of 2011.  

‘I’m a tactile politician. I really miss being able to, you know, grab hands, shake hands, you can’t do that now,’ Biden said on the fundraising call. 

When he and Harris do travel, there would not be ‘irresponsible rallies,’ the former vice president said.  

‘We’re going to do it in a way that is totally consistent with being responsible, unlike what this guy’s doing,’ Biden said of Trump. ‘He’s on the White House lawn tonight, first of all, violating the Hatch Act, virtually throwing every major rule in the dustbin.’

‘So what we’re working on is how I get out,’ he continued. I’m going to be traveling throughout the country where I can do it consistent with the state rules about how many people can be assembled,’ Biden said.